The theme for International Women’s Day (IWD) this year, Inspire Inclusion, reminds us to understand and value women’s inclusion for a better world.
To celebrate IWD this year, we talked to Vena Matthews, Senior Developer at Scenario and discussed her career journey and thoughts on creating a more inclusive world for women.
Author
Scenario
1. Tell us a bit about yourself
I like to be challenged with wide and varied tasks. Variety keeps me interested and engaged. I’m happy to tackle jobs on my own and enjoy collaborating with colleagues.
I was born and grew up in the Philippines but has made Australia my home for the last 24 years. Seeing more of the world and experiencing different cultures is in my plans.
2. Why did you choose to pursue a career as a developer?
It was not a conscious choice to start with. In the Philippines, Computer Science and Computer Engineering was the popular choice in the 1990s. I went with the flow. There was no changing my mind once I started. I enjoy the challenge of creating applications that simplify complex tasks. I love problem solving and find satisfaction in identifying the cause and finding solutions.
3. What has been your proudest achievement during your time at Scenario?
Hard to pick which is my proudest achievement over the years. The latest I’m most proud of was identifying and coding performance improvements across the system. There is deep feeling of satisfaction in identifying why a process is taking minutes to complete then finding a way to fix or improve the code for the same process to complete within seconds. Doing that in multiple parts of the system improved Scenario as a whole.
4. What does the IWD 2024 Theme #InspireInclusion mean to you?
To me, it means giving a fair chance. A chance to show what we are capable of before we are excluded. I can remember when job adverts indicate preferred gender and age and even the preferred school a candidate graduated from. We have come a long way.
Together, we remember we are all different and we celebrate these differences.
Together, we work to accept and embrace our differences.
5. What advice would you give to women who are considering starting a career in Technology?
Prepare yourself to fast pace continuous learning and exciting opportunities. More importantly, be assertive, believe in yourself, and know your worth.